1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a block processing phenomenon due to image encoding, and more particularly, to removing image blocking artifacts generated during an image encoded process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Encoding and compression techniques are widely used to reduce data capacity for transmitting, receiving, and storing image data, and generally, a block-based encoding technique is used. However, image blocking artifacts may be generated in a restored image after decoding due to frequency conversion and quantization, and as a result, the quality of an image may deteriorate due to horizontal and vertical lattice noise.
Deblocking techniques may be used to reduce blocking artifacts generated during a block-based encoding process. Encoder-performed loop filtering, and post-processing filtering that does not change the structure of the encoder, are used as a common decoding technique. In the case of loop filtering, accurate deblocking is possible using encoding information about each frame. However, if deblocking is performed by an encoding system, encoding complexity will increase, as well as channel bandwidth usage. In the case of post-processing filtering, deblocking filtering is performed by a decoding terminal independently from an encoding system, after restoring an image. Consequently, calculation load of the encoding system is not increased. However, since deblocking is performed independently from the encoding and decoding processes, and after decoding is completed, encoding information used during the decoding process of an image is difficult to acquire and use during the deblocking operation.